Musician vs. audiophile

Voicing is what it’s called and what you are up against.

It takes a lot of thought, time, money, trial, and error to get a system to work well together. That includes the room too. Personally I’ve experienced similar issues when moving to a new home. In my situation I bought another system that I run in another room.

I plan on moving eventually to a place where I can adapt or build a proper listening room. I think that we all would like that. Best of luck

Keep in mind that audiophiles listen and consume the product. Musicians, when they listen, spend a lot of time thinking about how they will produce the product. I have watched this happen dozens of times over the decades. 

I may have missed it, but what type of music does your wife play?

As a student of Yehudi Menuhin (while he was still alive), as well as some great jazz violinists, the big problem for me is getting midrange frequencies accurate with great resolution. When I say "midrange", I do not want to fall into the trap of how many frequencies can dance on the head of a pin in the midrange (e.g., I have read comments in TAC, Stereophile and elsewhere about "upper midrange", "lower midrange", etcetera). 

Bass and treble are much easier for audio speakers (systems) to reproduce, but the analytic separation of strings in orchestral music seems quite challenging for most audio systems.

If I was still playing the violin 6 - 8 hours a day, especially during performances, the last thing I would want at the end of the day would be to listen to more music, unless it was more rehearsal time.

-Gerry

As a retired classical pianist and audiophile, what I look for is a natural presentation.
I am not obsessive to the point I must have the most expensive, or best of the best equipment. The audiophile in me wants to obsess over the sound, but the musician in me simply wants to sit down and have an experience of the music that closely resembles what I have heard in live situations.
I think audiophiles look for different parameters than musicians do: Agonizing over parameters that musicians don’t care about.
A musician realizes there is no “one” sound of a performance. Yes, bass may not be “tight” in certain venues.  Similarly, “highs” may be compromised. There is no holy grail of one “perfect” sound.  So, if a recording is not ideal by audiophile standards, a musician may accept it because it better transmits the musical message, even if it’s not acceptable  by audiophile standards.

+1 Russbutton

Your “sizzle” remark is right on the mark. I would add that most high end sells sizzle too. Choosing the goldilocks sound (neutral overall - not too hot and not too cold) requires discipline and careful selection through audition of many tracks. B&W and others sell based on sizzle.